On Monday afternoon the first three of six concerts of the New Music Now miniseries were given in the National Gallery Auditorium. The first of these was given to the music of five composers. All of them had a degree of merit, but some more than others.

Norbert Palej’s String Quartet “De Profundis” was the most substantial and engaging of the compositions. In one fairly long movement, it isn’t based on a standard form, such as a sonata. Yet it is discursive and holds the listener’s attention by virtue of its interior logic. Moreover, it is full of dramatic contrasts and cardinal musical events. It received a committed performance by the Penderecki String Quartet and drew the warmest audience response of the program.

Another work of note was Evelyn Stroobach’s Into the Wind, a three-movement piece for solo violin. The writing for the instrument was idiomatic and, though it may have gone on too long for what it had to say, it had many strengths.

Steve Reich’s Vermont Counterpoint for solo flute and two recorded flutes is a nice enough piece, but this sort of arrangement always makes me wonder why they don’t record all three parts, stick in on a CD and be done with it.

Competent, but less impressive, were compositions by Claude Vivier and Victor Sanchez. Sanchez in particular wasn’t entirely able to focus his technical means to his musical ends.

The next concert was given entirely to pianist Eve Egoyan’s performance of Ann Southam’s Simple Lines of Enquiry. This extraordinary work consists of 12 pieces of about equal length, exactly the same tempo and each a simple exploration of a basic musical idea. It might be thought of as a meditation or a focus of meditation. It’s the kind of music that divides opinions sharply. Some love it, others find it a crashing bore.

I love it and, if I prefer Egoyan’s CD version to Monday’s live performance, it has nothing to do with their relative merits. It’s just that hearing it at home I can more readily surrender myself to its spell.

Do you think that the work of someone who died in 1988 can qualify as New Music? It would seem to in the case of Giocinto Scelsi. His music made up the third of the afternoon’s concerts. Using mostly conventional instruments in most unconventional ways, a guitar as a solo percussion instrument for example, he wrote some of the furthest-out music you’ll ever hear. Interesting stuff, to put it mildly.

New Music Now, Day 1

National Gallery of Canada, Monday noon to 4 p.m.

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